This invention relates to an accessory useful in dental practice for organizing dental clamps of various shapes and sizes in such a way that the dentist can select the type of clamp that he knows from experience is needed for the particular procedure at hand.
In certain operations, for example in root canal work, dentists find it necessary to isolate the tooth being worked on from mouth saliva and moisture. Usually this is accomplished by means of a dam in the form of a thin sheet of rubber having a small hole punched therein to accommodate the tooth being worked on. The dam is held by a clamp in a depressed position over the gum to expose the tooth at the work area. With the dam applied and held in position by the clamp, the dentist is then free to work on the tooth without fear of moisture or foreign matter interfering with or contaminating the operation. Typical rubber dam clamps in present use are constituted by a bow spring whose legs are joined to a pair of jaws or "beaks" shaped to engage a tooth, the bow spring being inwardly biased, whereby the jaws are normally closed. Such clamps are commercially available in a variety of shapes and sizes so as to fit teeth of different shapes and sizes and are formed of magnetic metal of a thickness so as to be relatively rigid.
In the interest of efficiency in selecting the desired clamp from a collection of closely similar clamps, it is desirable to organize a group of clamps according to size and shape in such a way that the dentist can select the type of clamp (usually identified by a characterizing number) that he knows from experience is needed for the procedure at hand. Among known techniques for organizing or segregating clamps is the use of a compartmented tray, not unlike a fishing tackle box, and placing clamps of different shapes and sizes in respective compartments. The compartments not usually being numbered or identified in any way, the dentist often has to pick up several clamps before he finds the one he is looking for, and in the process some clamps wind up in compartments other than the one to which they should have been returned. This obviously complicates the selection process the next time a clamp is needed. Moreover, if a tray is bumped or upset, the clamps wind up on the floor and again have to be sorted and returned to their appropriate compartments. This technique also has the disadvantage that one cannot tell at a glance the current inventory of this or that size or type of clamp.
Another known type of clamp organizer consists of a flat molded plastic slab having formed on the upper surface thereof a plurality of short upstanding posts of equal length, arranged in rows and columns and having graduated diameters on which the clamps are secured by springing the clamp slightly to spread apart its jaws so that it firmly engages a post of a diameter appropriate to that particular clamp. In commercially available organizers of this type the posts are very close to each other and when filled with clamps has an appearance not unlike that of a tray of finger rings in a jewelry store, except, of course, that the clamp stands up above the upper surface of the slab. This type of organizer has the disadvantage that it stresses the clamp while in storage, and does not afford easy selection of a particular type of clamp from the collection of closely spaced similarly shaped clamps.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide an organizer for dental clamps that overcomes the above-outlined shortcomings of available organizers and has the advantage of permitting visualization of the jaws of the clamps to facilitate selection and avoiding continued flexing of the box.